Red Wings show improvement on the penalty-kill

DETROIT -- Penalty-killing is one area the Detroit Red Wings have improved upon, despite their recent struggles.

The Red Wings haven’t allowed a power-play goal in their last eight games, including Friday’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks. They have killed all 23 shorthanded situations during this streak and 25 in a row overall, dating back to Nov. 25 vs. Atlanta.

This is the longest stretch of games Detroit has not allowed a power-play goal since a nine-game streak from Dec. 26, 2007, to Jan. 10, 2008.

“It’s something we needed to clean up,’’ forward Kris Draper said. “Everyone involved in it was disappointed and frustrated with the way things were going.

“The best thing is staying out of the (penalty) box, you don’t have to kill as much.’’

It helps that they’re not having to kill a lot of penalties. The Red Wings are the least-penalized team in the NHL.

“It seems like we haven’t taken a lot of penalties lately, which as a group means we’re skating better, we’re not taking those little hooking penalties,’’ forward Kirk Maltby said.

He said his club has done a better job of taking away second chances.

“Teams get set up, which is fine, but once they get their initial shot or play off and the goalie makes the save, either you get the puck frozen and get a faceoff or you get the puck down (the ice),’’ Maltby said. “It seems like that’s what we’re doing a lot more. Teams aren’t getting the puck back and getting two, three, four chances out of it.

“Or they may have the puck for a while in our zone but they’re just passing it along the perimeter. We’re in the (shooting) lanes, we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.’

The Red Wings had climbed to 19th in the league in penalty-killing before Friday’s game.

“We’ve always had the confidence, but for some reason we just weren’t able to stop teams on a consistent basis,’’ Maltby said.